


the lasting mark of legacy

by disaster_tiefling



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, Introspection, Pre-Relationship, Thaos and Iovara are discussed but not actually present here, some insight into my watcher Vex, some point before they get together in act 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:47:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27556315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disaster_tiefling/pseuds/disaster_tiefling
Summary: How responsible is someone for their previous incarnation's actions?Aloth finds the Watcher on the deck of the ship late one night, and learns something about why she acts the way she does.
Relationships: Aloth Corfiser/The Watcher
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	the lasting mark of legacy

He finds her at the bow of the ship. She’s gazing out over the dark water, seemingly deep in thought. Aloth would purposely make some noise or something to let Vex know he’s there but he knows her well enough by this point to know that she’s never going to be surprised by someone sneaking up on her, intentional or not. She always was very perceptive even 5 years ago, back when they hunted Thaos. Now that she’s had time to really get used to her Watcher abilities, and even picked up being a cipher at some point he doesn’t know when, he figures she’s too well attuned to soul essence to not feel when someone is near.

He joins her in staring at nothing, and for a long time they stay just like that. He thinks about the last time they traveled together, a partnership that began as a way to stop the madness of her Awakening from destroying her mind and evolved into a grand plot to destroy a thousands-of-years old secret organization. Or at least, its leader. This time has some similar feeling to him that their already monumental task will turn out to be so much bigger. He figures that Vex is best suited to the task, and he’s happy to be able to support her once more. Like old times.

Maybe 15 minutes pass, maybe an hour. Aloth thinks it doesn’t matter so much. But at some point after he joins her at the bow of the ship, Vex speaks.

“You know, killing Thaos wasn’t actually what ended up saving my mind 5 years ago.”

He glances sidelong at her and raises an eyebrow. “Really?” he asks, and receives an affirmative hum in return. “Then what was it?”

He’d never heard anything about this before, not in the few weeks after, and not in the month or so since they’d reunited. But Vex is a somewhat reserved individual and she shares exactly what she wants when she’s ready too. He’s never going to press her for too much.

“In Breith Eaman, do you remember what Iovara said?” she asks. Aloth has seen her break down to the point of tears only a handful of times, and that was one of them. He couldn’t forget any of it if he wanted too.

“Mostly,” is what he says anyway, because he wants to know exactly what she’s referring to.

“She said that she’d found peace with nearly every part of her life. All except for one thing. She needed to reconcile with me. She said it was the only thing that had been tearing away at her for all those years. And in that moment I realized that was what I needed too.”

“A resolution?”

“Reconciliation,” she says simply.

“How so?” he prompts when she remains quiet.

“I’d known for some time that my soul had been reformed entirely from that life, why those memories felt like mine. We were exactly the same person, and that meant that all those choices were my own.”

“But it wasn’t really you,” he tells her. But she just shakes her head.

“Everything about my soul is the same as it was then, just dressed up a little differently. Maybe this version of me might have made some different choices. That thought has certainly kept me up more than a few nights. But then I think of all the ways I’m not so different, and I wonder.

But I needed to reconcile that, just like Iovara needed closure about what I did. Once I could explain myself, take responsibility for my actions then, and learn that she still loved me… that's what settled my soul. I still remember everything, but it doesn’t tear me apart at the seams anymore.”

“So it was never really about Thaos at all?” he asks her, curious about the answer. 

“Maybe not for that, no. But I needed to confront him at Sun-in-Shadow. I had to,” she says with an intense conviction. “It was partly because what Thaos was hiding was dangerous, and partly because I believe that kith need to make their own decisions about what to do with that knowledge. But mostly, it was for myself. Stopping Thaos would help me make up for what I never did in my first life.” Vex clenches her fists and, having long since abandoned the pretense of not actually looking at her while she spoke, Aloth sees the righteous fury Iovara had loved. “I couldn’t let myself be afraid of him anymore. I couldn’t. Because if I let him win again, he would continue to kill and orchestrate terrible things, all to punish people for the crime of questioning.”

“I’ve never known you to be someone who trusts people with so much authority over others,” he tells her. “It would have gone against your nature to let him continue.”

“And now I understand why,” she laughs bitterly. “All this time, even before I was Awakened, I hated that sort of person. Always tried to take them down because I knew I would hate myself if I didn’t at least try. I had so many chances to stop him then and never took them. Maybe some part of me already knew I was trying to absolve that guilt I always felt.”

“I think you’ve done more than enough,” he assures her. “And even if you feel like you haven’t, I got a feeling that this journey after Eothas is only going to help. You’ve always been passionate about protecting people who need it, and I believe that you’ll only continue to do right by the world. You’ll figure out whatever Eothas’ machinations are and put a stop to them. I’ll be right there to help you.”

Vex doesn’t say anything right away after that. He gets nervous, thinking he might have been too earnest. He rubs the back of his neck in slight embarrassment.

“... Thank you, Aloth. For staying by my side” she says. He gives her a half-smile.

“Of course, Vex. I’ll always be there,” he promises.


End file.
